Communication networks permit communication devices, such as personal computers, servers, laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other similar devices, to communicate with one another. Recently, household appliances have begun including micro-controllers and/or microcomputers that allow these appliances to communicate over a communication network, such as the Internet.
Communication over these networks is often governed by a packetization protocol and a corresponding packet exchange protocol that specifies how the communication devices on the network must operate under various circumstances. These protocols are specified under the relevant standards and are applicable to the domains in which the communication devices operate.
Packetization and packet exchange protocols usually require that a communication device involved in data communications transmit a data file as a series of discrete packets. A conventional communication device must typically store various record information associated with the transmitted data packet in its local memory. For example, the communication device may store a pointer in its local memory indicating what portion of the data file has been sent. This communication device may then use the pointer information to determine what portion of the file to transmit in the next packet. When a number of data conversations are occurring at the same time, storing pointer information in this manner requires that the communication device have a large amount of local memory.
Some communication devices, such as mini-computers, micro-controllers, and microcomputers, lack sufficient local memory to store the pointer information associated with transmitting data packets over a packet-based network. These devices, therefore, often associate themselves as slave devices to one or more host computers that contain the resources to perform operations on their behalf. For example, the host computers may store the file pointer information for the slave devices and transmit this information to the slave devices when required. Such arrangements can result in delays in the transmission of the packets and increase the cost of connecting the devices to the communication network.
Therefore, there exists a need for systems and methods that enable communication devices with limited memory capacity to communicate over a network.